


Heartbeats

by Nerd_of_Camelot



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! - All Media Types
Genre: "I fell in love with my fake boyfriend?? Help?????", Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bakura Ryou Dyes His Hair Funky Colors, Eventual Smut, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Falling In Love, Happy Ending, Idiots in Love, M/M, Making Love, Mutual Pining, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Not Beta Read, Past Bakura Ryou/Yami Bakura - Freeform, Pierced Bakura Ryou, Post-Break Up, Slow Burn, Soft Yami Marik, Yami Marik is Ishtar, Yami Marik is Not a Bad Person
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-03 18:38:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24700180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nerd_of_Camelot/pseuds/Nerd_of_Camelot
Summary: Ryou’s boyfriend, Bakura, dumped him for someone else two years ago.He’d been upset about it, sure, but overall didn’t harbor terribly much ill will toward either of them―still, when he’d finally ended up going to a friendly function he knew they’d both be at, he wasn’t expecting to end up with a fake boyfriend.He wasn’t complaining, though―if nothing else, it was entertaining.
Relationships: Bakura Ryou & Mutou Yuugi, Bakura Ryou & Yami Bakura & Marik Ishtar & Yami Marik, Bakura Ryou & Yami Marik, Bakura Ryou/Yami Marik, Mutou Yuugi & Yami Yuugi | Atem, Mutou Yuugi/Yami Yuugi | Atem, Yami Bakura & Yami Yuugi, Yami Bakura/Marik Ishtar
Comments: 4
Kudos: 26





	1. Keep Believing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like many things I've written lately, this idea just wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it
> 
> Deathshipping is one of my OG ships for Yu-Gi-Oh! so it's only right that I finally do a fake dating au with them

Ryou’s boyfriend, Bakura, dumped him for someone else two years ago.

He’d been upset about it at the time, sure, because he’d  _ really _ thought he had something special with Bakura, but, well… Sometimes that was just how it was. And, if nothing else, he was glad that Bakura had respected him enough to not cheat on him and actually tell him the truth. It had  _ shattered _ him to hear the man he’d been in love with since he was sixteen say there was someone else, but it was so much better than the alternative. He was grateful to have been trusted with the truth.

Had he gotten hysterical? Yes. Had he maybe had to physically restrain himself from smashing or dropping the cup he’d had in his hands? Also yes. And had he been totally inconsolable for weeks after the fact? Absolutely.

But he’d held himself together long enough to hear Bakura out, listen to the genuine and totally non-judgemental, “I’m sorry, I love you, but,” spiel, and he’d thanked him for telling him the truth. He’d managed to avoid crying during that, at least, as well.

But Bakura was still in the apartment, still getting his overnight bag together so that he could start moving out, when the dam broke and Ryou sort of just sat at the kitchen table and sobbed. He’d only seen Bakura for a moment during that time, and he’d looked like he probably felt like he was chewing glass.

So, yeah. Ryou had been upset at the time, but overall he didn’t harbor terribly much ill will toward either Bakura  _ or _ his new boyfriend, Marik.

Still, he hadn’t seen either of them in two years.

They still hung around Yugi and his friends, but Ryou had been steadfastly avoiding outings involving them for the entire time, mostly out of fear that he wasn’t as okay with it as he thought he was, and he was going to devolve back into hysterics as soon as he saw them together.

But he’d been working on himself for the last two years,  _ especially _ in the last few months, and he’d decided a couple of months ago to test his theory. See if he’d just fall apart if he saw them together.

So he’d found Bakura’s social media again (through Yugi’s, of course) and he’d stalked. Stalked like some creepy overbearing ex-boyfriend until he’d seen so many pictures of Bakura and Marik holding each other or kissing or candid shots of Marik (or of Bakura, on Marik’s profiles) that it was almost as normal to him as seeing the pictures of him and Bakura had been two years ago, or seeing pictures of Yugi and Yami was.

And, ultimately?

It didn’t make him feel as shit as he expected it to.

He was still twinging a little, in the heart department, at knowing someone he’d devoted his whole heart to for  _ seven years _ had kind of just… Fallen in love with someone else… But, again, that was just how it was sometimes. Some things were meant to last lifetimes and some weren’t. Now all he could do was hope that it didn’t turn into a pattern, and Marik didn’t end up in the same boat as Ryou had.

So, theory thoroughly disproven (at least in terms of pictures), Ryou had stopped actively avoiding places he knew Bakura hung out sometimes in the past.

He’d seen Bakura and Marik in a few of them enough times after that that he could safely call his theory disproven and he’d never been happier.

Now was just the issue of, like… Seeing if being  _ around _ them got a different reaction.

So all he had to do was wait for an invitation to a gathering. Yugi still offered them to larger gatherings, even though Ryou rarely showed up, and Ryou appreciated it immensely. Having the option at all was freeing.

He’d gotten the invite to this one last week, and as usual it came paired with a warning that Bakura and Marik had already agreed to come.

He’d agreed to this one, for once, and Yugi’s surprise was tangible even through text and his obvious efforts not to be too outwardly surprised.

He was getting ready to leave, now, and he wondered idly how Bakura was going to react to seeing him.

He’d be surprised he was there at all, he imagined. More surprised by everything else―the undercut hairstyle, the bright mint-green strips of dyed hair at the top, the band tee and oversized bomber jacket, ripped up skinny jeans and combat boots, the many ear piercings he decidedly  _ had not _ had when they’d been dating… It would be a big change.

Ryou didn’t post many pictures of himself to social media, and even if he did he somehow doubted that Bakura still followed or was friends with any of his accounts, so there’d be no basis for expectations. If he’d seen him at all in the last two years it’d have to be through candid shots from Yugi and Ryou would know if he was posting those―and he wasn’t. Not to any account Ryou knew of, at least.

Still.

He knew Bakura would be surprised.

Some horrible little hopeful part of him wondered if him having come out of his shell a little might entice Bakura back to him, and he viciously stomped that part down and out of his mind.

It had been two years. No need to be like that about it.

Better to just think about how surprised he’d be. How surprised Marik would probably be as well.

Who knew what Marik thought of him regardless―he knew the guy, sure, but not  _ well. _ They’d talked maybe twice before Bakura had dumped him and as social skills were hardly Ryou’s strong suit at the time they’d been awkward conversations.

Did he think of him the same way so many other people had, before? Did he think of him as mousy and scared and fragile?

Probably.

Not that Ryou would blame him―again, they’d talked twice in the past, and both times Ryou had been far from the epitome of outgoing and strong. He’d weighed maybe 110 pounds with hip-length straight white hair that he never did anything special with because Bakura had always laughed and played with it anyway and that had been what mattered to him. And  _ god, _ sometimes Ryou forgot that he used to only wear clothes a size or two too big on him.

_ Yeah, _ he thought, looking down at today’s outfit and glancing back up toward his hair,  _ Definitely going to be a surprise for both of ‘em. _

And that was as far as he let himself think on it, after that, because he’d wasted entirely too much time thinking about it. It was time to  _ do. _

So he grabbed his keys and he took off.

He was three blocks away when he bumped into someone and instantly apologized, because some habits didn’t need to change and that was one of them. It was only  _ polite _ to apologize when you rammed almost face-first into someone’s chest.

He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting when he looked up at the guy’s face, but it was  _ not _ what he was seeing.

… He recognized this guy.

“You’re fine,” The guy said, before he could really think on the feeling too much, “I wasn’t really watching where I was going, either.”

The guy squinted, after a second, though, eyes sweeping over him. And Ryou  _ knew― _ that wasn’t a “what the fuck are you wearing?” look, nor was it a look of someone judging his fashion choices. That was a look of, “I’ve seen you before but I cannot fucking figure out where.”

It hit him, right as he thought that,  _ exactly _ who this guy was.

Or, well, as “exact” as it got, seeing as he’d never spoken to him and didn’t know his name.

“Wait a sec,” Ryou said, “You used to hang ‘round Marik, didn’t you?”

The wide-eyed blink told him he was right before the guy even managed to summon a verbal response of, “Yeah?”

And Ryou grinned, because that was hilarious to him for reasons he didn’t understand. He stuck his hand out anyway and tried for a more charming smile than the one that had initially popped up, “Ryou,” He said, “But you probably wouldn’t know me anyway. I was never particularly memorable.”

A subtle jab at himself? Certainly.

It’d be fine, though.

“Ishtar,” The other introduced himself in turn, shaking his hand and squinting a little bit at him. “... You hung around Bakura. That’s all I remember though.”

“Ugh,” Ryou rolled his eyes, “Did worse than hang ‘round him, mate. I  _ dated _ him.”

“... He left you for Marik?” Ishtar guessed, brow lifting.

“Sure did.”

Ishtar laughed, and it was a half-bitter sound, “Marik left me for him.”

Ryou did try to suppress his laugh, but he didn’t manage, and Ishtar just grinned. Ryou watched as the other directed his gaze around, as if searching, and heaved a half-amused sigh. And, seeing as he was a nice guy, he cocked his head.

“Looking for something? Or someone?”

“... Finally agreed to go hang out with Yugi,” Ishtar finally said, “Even though Marik’s there. Haven’t been in town long enough that I don’t remember where the shop I’m supposed to be headed to is at.”

“Oh, you’re going to?” Ryou couldn’t help getting a little excited―he may have been a bit on the socially awkward side growing up and even now wasn’t exactly the epitome of a sociable adult, but potentially having someone else at the function who was single and that he could bitch with would be  _ great. _ “I was just headed that way myself.”

“Thank God,” Ishtar sighed, almost too dramatically.

What a theatre kid―Ryou wanted to be best friends with him right now immediately. They were going to get along  _ so well. _

And there wasn’t much more discussion about where they were going, and no discussion at all about whether or not Ishtar would be walking with him to get there. It was nice, and the walk there was full, primarily, of the two of them bitching back and forth about Bakura and Marik. It was  _ extremely _ therapeutic for Ryou, who had until the moment he’d opened his mouth to bitch about Bakura  _ today, _ never said a bad word about him out loud. It was surprisingly freeing to do so, and Ishtar did little else but egg him on.

“And ugh, God, don’t even get me  _ started _ on all the random  _ junk _ he would steal just for kicks.” Ryou groaned, as they entered the building they were supposed to be at at long last, “Not one piece of the jewelry he stole went to me or to him, either! He gave it all to Marik.”

“So  _ that’s _ where Marik kept getting new earrings and bracelets,” Ishtar gasped, like everything suddenly made sense now.

“Oh my  _ God,” _ Ryou had to laugh.

Of course Bakura had been tossing jewelry at Marik before he’d broken up with Ryou―he was like a bird, that man. Showed affection by gifting you shit. Had probably been doing it platonically, at first, but it had turned into something else and wham, bam, no more Ryou despite seven years of dating and another seven of history between them before that.

Spotting Yugi at about the same moment Yugi spotted him, Ryou grinned and waved, half-jogging over to the table. Ishtar followed right behind him, lighting up a little bit at the sight of Yugi.

“Hey, Yugi,” Ryou greeted.

“Hey, shortstack,” Was the greeting Ishtar gave, as he arrived.

Yugi grinned at both, then glanced at the rest of the table and vaguely winced. “Gonna be a tight squeeze, I’m afraid,” He warned, instead of greeting them in return, “This was the biggest table they had.”

Ryou threw a glance at the rest of the table and tried not to turn pale when he realized that either  _ he _ was going to have to sit next to Marik or  _ Ishtar _ was, and there would be very little room between him and whoever he sat next to. But, considering he wasn’t a coward, he turned to Ishtar.

“I don’t mind a tight squeeze if you don’t,” He said, “But we may have to rub elbows a little more literally than I’d like.”

Ishtar laughed, even as he seemed to try very hard not to look at Marik at all, “I think I can handle it. You’re a twig, how much room can you possibly take up?”

Ryou laughed in return, and before he could rethink at all, he sat in the seat next to Marik. No use forcing Ishtar to sit there, after all. It was less awkward for him to take the seat and sort of ignore the guy, overall.

And Ishtar slid into the final remaining seat.

Ryou felt eyes on him and tried to glance over as discreetly as he could.

Marik and Bakura were both staring at him, as were Yami and Kaiba. He’d have questioned that if not for the fact that Marik and Bakura hadn’t seen him in two years and Yami and Kaiba hadn’t seen him since his hair was blue and about ten inches longer three months ago. Oh well, he thought. Let them stare.

He was used to people staring at him by now anyway.

Conversation at the table resumed soon enough, with enough bickering thrown in to let Ryou know that this was still the same friend group it had been two years ago, even without Tristan or Tea around, and with the addition of Serenity. Some things simply never changed.

However, it  _ was _ new to see Yugi and Yami in amongst the people bickering. Specifically considering they were bickering at each other, rather than at anyone else. Ryou had always known them to be very in-sync and rather docile with each other, really, so even just minor arguments were something morbidly special. Right now they seemed to be arguing about whether Yugi should get his ears pierced again, and Yami was making the very compelling argument that if Yugi got many more piercings he was going to become a magnetic hazard.

Still, it was obvious enough that Yami was mostly joking in order to rile Yugi up, and though it was  _ sort of _ working it was obvious Yugi knew what was happening and was playing along while still being genuinely frustrated.

“Why do you even put up with him, Yugi?” Ryou couldn’t help asking, mostly teasing but also genuinely curious because, damn. Yami just got more and more ornery every single time that Ryou saw him.

“You don’t really have much room to talk in that area,” Yugi replied, instead of actually answering, brow cocked as he threw a meaningful look toward Bakura.

Affronted (and not entirely  _ playfully _ affronted, at that), Ryou gasped and opened his mouth to reply.

Before he could, Ishtar snorted and said, “Actually, I think both of us are uniquely qualified in that area. We dated  _ those two.” _

Yugi barely managed to suppress a laugh, and Ryou… Did not. He snorted, shoved his face into his hand, and just let himself shake his way through what would have otherwise been a rather loud laughing fit. He wasn’t sure why it was so funny to him, but he thought part of it may have been Marik and Bakura sitting  _ right next to him _ when the joke had been made. Ishtar  _ clearly _ didn’t care and that was admirable, but also  _ hilarious _ to Ryou.

When he calmed down, he turned almost completely to Ishtar and said, “You. I like you. You’re my new best friend.”

Yugi gave an exaggeratedly affronted gasp, clutching his heart. “I thought  _ I _ was your best friend!”

Playfully turning his nose up, Ryou joked in return, “You were. But now I have someone new.”

Yugi fell dramatically against Yami’s shoulder and fake-sobbed, and Ryou could only grin while Yami rolled his eyes affectionately and played along enough to pat Yugi’s shoulder comfortingly. Ishtar, at his side, pressed his lips into a thin line in what was an obvious attempt to keep from smiling, but his lips just kept turning upwards anyway.

“His melodrama is something else, isn’t it?” Ryou asked, half laughing.

Ishtar gave up on trying not to smile with a puffed-out laugh and nodded his agreement, angling his body further toward Ryou even as he grinned at him.

And they ended up talking mostly among themselves for the rest of the event―Yugi and Yami would butt in at times, and even Kaiba had exchanged some banter with Ryou when he felt it appropriate, but ultimately they really didn’t talk to anyone but each other for any meaningful amount of time. Ryou hadn’t been so enraptured with someone new that he would ignore Yugi in… He couldn’t remember how long. He’d already known Bakura when he’d met Yugi, so…

“... not exactly the kind of game I’m usually into, but the puzzles aren’t totally ridiculous, so it’s actually  _ playable,” _ Ishtar was, as it turned out, just as avid a gamer and just as passionate about it as Yugi and Ryou both were, and he was still talking even as both he and Ryou got up and tossed goodbyes to the others, who were also taking their leave, “Instead of just being a bunch of bad gameplay with good― bye, Yugi!― graphics, you know?”

“Yeah,” Ryou agreed, practically following him out and only sparing a single backwards glance to see what Marik and Bakura were doing, “Puzzle games are Yugi’s specialty, and I like them plenty but RPGs are really more my thing. Guess that’s what I get for getting my start with  _ Monster World, _ though.”

Back at the table, Marik and Bakura were just… Staring after them. Ryou pretended he didn’t notice, but… Well. He noticed. And he wondered, just for a moment, what they were staring at. But it hit him soon enough that they must just be blown away by how quickly he and Ishtar had hit it off.

If they’d known each other back then, Ryou wondered, would they have turned to each other when Bakura and Marik had left them to get together?

It was a pointless train of thought, but it  _ did _ give him a funny idea.

They walked the three or so blocks back to where they’d initially met up and didn’t stop talking once the entire time. Ryou had only ever been able to do that with Yugi, to date―he and Bakura had plenty in common, but didn’t talk much. He and Yugi could talk for  _ hours _ if they wanted. And now it was seeming he and Ishtar could do the same, since they’d spent the last three talking to each other with few breaks.

“Is it weird to ask for your number?” Ryou asked, before they separated to head their own ways back home.

Ishtar paused, laughed, and said, “I was just about to try and talk myself into asking you for yours.”

Ryou laughed as well.

Ishtar pulled his phone out, and Ryou did as well. They both just handed their phones off to each other and typed in their numbers, and Ryou was grinning even though he wasn’t sure why. New friend glee, he guessed.

“Y’know,” Ishtar was saying, as he typed his number into Ryou’s phone, “Bakura and Marik seemed…”

“Watchful?” Ryou suggested.

“That’s one word for it.” He handed Ryou’s phone back, and Ryou handed him his in return, “Bet they’d just  _ lose _ it if they thought we were dating instead of just being friends right after meeting each other.”

“I was  _ just _ thinking that,” Ryou gasped, then laughed, “Oh, can you imagine if we fooled them into thinking we were dating? All the head-scratching…”

“It’d be  _ hilarious _ to watch them scramble trying to figure out if we were fucking with them or not,” Ishtar snickered.

They stared at each other for a second, silent, and then descended into laughter.

“It’s certainly an idea.” Ryou said, when they stopped laughing.

“It certainly is,” Ishtar agreed.

Grinning, Ryou hugged him. “Talk to you later?”

“For sure,” Ishtar squeezed, then released him.

And Ryou ended up collapsing onto his bed still grinning like an idiot. He had a new friend. How long had it been since he’d made a new friend?

Long enough.

It was nice to have another one, though. Especially one who wasn’t just… A friend of Yugi’s who became a friend of his because Yugi went out of his way to introduce them. They’d met on accident and Yugi hadn’t done anything at all to try and push them together. It wasn’t like when Ryou and Joey had become friends. It was different and very genuine and Ryou didn’t think he was going to stop smiling for the next several days, if not the next few  _ weeks. _

… God, he hadn’t even felt a  _ twinge _ when he was looking at Bakura and Marik, though.

_ He really wasn’t going to be able to stop smiling. _


	2. Like This

Ishtar turned out to be the best friend that Ryou could have ended up meeting entirely on accident.

They got on like a house on fire, really, and Ryou lived for every moment they spent together. He smiled more than he had when he’d been with Bakura and the two years since the breakup in just the first month of knowing Ishtar, he was pretty sure. The guy just had this way of making him grin. He felt warm and safe and happy with him.

So, two and a half- _ ish _ months into their friendship, they’d started taking a lot of selfies together and posting them, talking bout each other a lot, and generally spending any free moment they both had talking to each other. They hung out in person more than Ryou hung out with anyone else. Even Yugi. And they were almost weirdly comfortable with each other already, since they’d run out of things they had in common to ramble about a month in and just started talking about other stuff.

Ryou didn’t realize he liked being info-dumped to so much.

Also didn’t realize how freeing it was to info-dump about something when the other person had no prior knowledge of it.

Oh, the books Ishtar would never have to read because he’d let Ryou go on a spirited rant at three in the morning…

And, you know, when they ran out of things to ramble about, they also took to just laying around together in silence, which was equally freeing.

They had also, however, ended up on the subject of pretending to date several times after the initial joking discussion, and last week, when Yugi invited the two of them to a picnic with the usual suspects for that sort of gathering, the two of them had gotten onto the subject yet again. And they figured, y’know what?

May as well.

It’d be fun to see who was fooled and who smelled a rat, y’know? And the confusion would be funny.

So they agreed on it and did their own things in the meantime and Ryou spent a day or two stripping the mint green out of his hair so he could re-dye his hair a new color or two. He ended up going with pastel blue and pink, which worked a lot better than he’d expected.

So he rolled onto the scene of the picnic about twenty minutes early, when it was mostly just Yugi and Yami setting up, and helped out with the preparations. He’d even brought some desserts because, hey, why not. He was good at making cream puffs, may as well make some while his hair was coloring.

And the others slowly arrived alone or in groups of two or three, until finally Bakura and Marik arrived and Ishtar arrived right afterwards. Ryou grinned at the sight of him, and since he was done setting up he immediately all but pranced over to the slightly taller man.

“Ryou,” Ishtar greeted, lips quirking up into a grin of his own, “There you are.”

“Hey, Ish.” Ryou greeted in return, “I was wondering if you were going to show up.”

Ishtar laughed, winding an arm around him and tucking his thumb into one of his belt-loops, tugging him against his side in a gentle, one-armed hug that made Ryou’s cheeks color a little, if only from the suddenness of it. “Of course I showed up,” Ishtar said, as if there was no reason in the world that he wouldn’t, and then, “I like the new look, by the way. Pink and blue suits you.”

Cheeks coloring a tad more, Ryou couldn’t keep the dopey smile off of his face and was just glad that looking like a lovestruck idiot like that would sell the idea better than him being totally unaffected. He tucked himself closer to Ishtar’s side, making some comment or another about how he was probably just saying that and getting squeezed gently for his troubles. Ishtar shot him an amused look and didn’t let go of him even as he made a beeline for Yugi, more or less forcing Ryou to walk along with him, still tucked into his side.

It was comfortable.

Ishtar was very warm, and he was very gentle with him.

And Ryou felt… Pretty, uh…

Well. Um.

…  _ It was nice, okay? _ It was really nice. He very much enjoyed just sort of staying right by Ishtar’s side while they were there, tucked up against him with his thumb still through his belt loop and anchoring him there as if he would have gone anywhere anyway. And Ishtar kept shifting, subtly, to knock his chin against his head or nose at his hair, and it was a lot to handle after two years of pretty much no physical contact and the prior several years of not very much physical contact even from Bakura, but he was  _ living _ for it. If nothing else it made him feel warm and happy.

Not to mention, seeing Marik and Bakura passing glances while they socialized with Yami and Kaiba was… Satisfying.

They didn’t look too bothered just yet, but they were definitely questioning what was going on, and that was a good start.

“So, anyways, Yami and I finally reached an agreement on the whole ear-piercing thing,” Yugi was saying, nose wrinkled a bit in a way that told Ryou that the “agreement” was probably something he was still coming to terms with.

“Yeah?” He asked, quirking a brow with Ishtar quirked one of his as well.

“... If I get them pierced again I have to let him pay for it,” Yugi admitted, crinkling his nose further, and Ryou understood.

Yugi hated it when other people spent money on him, and Yami loved spending money on other people. And, sure, Ryou knew as well as Yugi did that Yami didn’t  _ care _ if he got his ears pierced again―Yugi could pierce his ears and his lips and his nose and eyebrows all he wanted and Yami wouldn’t be deterred in the slightest―, but he also knew that Yami didn’t like that Yugi would be spending money on it, especially since he didn’t have all that much to toss at piercings with all the social gatherings he planned out. Yami, however, had  _ plenty, _ as the son of a once-powerful founder of a tech company and the sole heir to the fortune his father had left behind, and as someone with a full-time gig winning dueling tournaments and crushing his opponents (like Kaiba, for instance) into the dust as the reigning King of Games ten years running.

Point was, Yami hadn’t posed that ‘agreement’ as a way to keep Yugi from doing it, no matter how much Yugi hated having money spent on him, but rather as a way for Yugi to get it done without having to sacrifice anything else he enjoyed in order to get it done, and Ryou knew that.

But that didn’t mean that Yugi wasn’t going to pussyfoot around it and try to find some way to  _ not _ use his boyfriend’s money.

“Well,” Said Ryou, knowing he was going to sound unhelpful as hell, “He  _ is _ loaded, Yugi.”

Yugi groaned. “Not you too!”

“I have to agree,” Ishtar admitted, “I don’t see why you wouldn’t take him up on that.”

Yugi, groaning again, shoved his face into his hands and didn’t say much else for a few minutes―went so quiet, in fact, that Yami sent them a knowing look and sent Yugi an affectionate (though exasperated) grin.

All in all, the outing went about as Ryou had expected it to, and there were no real hiccups in the deception. Yugi, though he didn’t say a word about it, seemed convinced they were dating and had been for a while, and Marik and Bakura seemed to have their suspicions. It went very well and Ryou was glad, but he knew he needed to toss out some more solid evidence just to make Marik and Bakura reel a little harder than they already were.

It was with that in mind, when he and Ishtar had said their goodbyes to Yugi and started to head off, that he pulled gently out of Ishtar’s hold, smiled up at him, and sort of bounced up to close the distance so he could kiss him on his cheek. Ishtar grinned, they said their goodbyes to each other, and Ryou made sure to send one last look back at the slowly dispersing group to see Marik and Bakura frozen in place, staring like deer caught in the headlights and flicking glances at each other.

It made his grin widen, and he all but skipped home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> in honor of today being the day that my fiance and i were _supposed_ to get married but didn't end up being able to because of Current Events, and also in honor of Ryou's birthday, i've finished off this chapter at long last along with the next one which will either be posted later today or some time next week, depending on when i start in on the last two chapters of this fic
> 
> I know it's fairly short but eh, it's like that sometimes and I learned a long time ago not to apologize for chapter length lmao


End file.
